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Terms and points can't apply. Learn more at AmericanExpress.com slash Amex Business. This episode is brought to you by Amazon Prime. There's nothing sweeter than baking cookies during the holidays. With Prime, I get all my ingredients delivered right to my door, fast and free. No last minute store trips needed. And of course, I blast my favorite holiday playlist on Amazon Music.
It's the ultimate soundtrack for creating unforgettable memories. From streaming to shopping, it's on Prime. Visit Amazon.com slash Prime to get more out of whatever you're into. This is The Rich Eisen Show. Live from the Rich Eisen Show studio in Los Angeles.
Justin Jefferson. The Rich Eisen Show. I think I need to play better.
I don't think that's a mystery. I think the last few weeks I would say, you know, I need to play better. Today's guest, pro football Hall of Famer Brian Duckins, host of the Greenlight podcast, Chris Long, Lions running back, Jameer Gibbs. And now it's Rich Eisen. Oh, baby, welcome this edition of The Rich Eisen Show. Live on a Tuesday here in Los Angeles, California, 844204.
Rich is the number to dial right here on the Roku Sports Channel. We appreciate everybody who takes us in every day, 12 to 3 Eastern. The platform is free. It is awesome. We love being on it and we love to be seen on it. So we love to be heard as well.
And in terms of that, the news came out yesterday. We're joining the Infinity Sports Network starting on the first Monday of 2025. So anybody who's out there who listens to us, we will give you the information as we get closer of our new XM and Sirius XM station that we will be moving to. And then there'll be quite a shift in terms of how you might listen to us.
Terrestrial radio will keep you up to speed on all that. But we're very excited because nobody likes being heard more than me. Certainly since where I live, nobody listens to me. 844204, Rich is the number to dial. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to turn this into a therapy session. We have a couch if you want to sit down. I mean, it's just right there.
You could just walk over. Let me tell you about my childhood. I got three hours. Could you imagine if I just started turning this show into that sort of thing? Well, I mean, I did share about my prom night the other day. It all started back on the prom night. That's where it all went wrong. The Staten Island Ferry.
It all started on the Staten Island Ferry. Good to see you over there, Chris Brockman. How are you, Adam? Great.
T.J. Mikey Diaz and Deez Nuts. Good to see you. You got a haircut, huh, Mike? Yep.
Tight. T.J. Jefferson is stealing himself because our first guest is somebody from his nightmares. Brian Dawkins is first up. My own personal Freddy Krueger right there, man. Forgive me if I'm not as welcoming to Brian Dawkins.
Nightmare on Broad Street, is that what you're saying? Oh my God. Why'd he do that to us, for all those years? Well, I love Brian Dawkins, and he's as great as they come, and he's got something he wants to talk about.
A health initiative, testyourkidneys.com, and I'm always up for helping him out with whatever he wants to talk about. We go way back, like a car seat, back to year one of NFL Network. He's a pro football Hall of Famer. Lots to talk about with him, with what's going on with the Eagles.
Same thing with Chris Long. Chris Long returns to this program. Hey, where's he been? You know, doing things with Belichick. He's very busy. On the CW, inside the NFL, Green Light Pod, he's going to be joining us.
And then Jameer Gibbs of the Detroit Lions will join us to talk about being one of the last remaining healthy Detroit Lions. That's in hour number three. That's crazy. It is. We'll talk about that in a second.
Again, 844-204-RICH, number to dial if you want to chat with us. We always appreciate that. One of the stories of the year. Minnesota Vikings. You have to say that. Minnesota Vikings, who moved up in the draft to take J.J. McCarthy when pennies got taken by the Falcons as the fourth quarterback taken in the first seven picks of the draft.
My goodness. First eight picks of the draft. There you go. And they moved up to take J.J. McCarthy, and Sam Darnold was there. And the conversation I heard leading up to the draft, after the draft, is that Kevin O'Connell, head coach of the Minnesota Vikings, after taking Sam Darnold from free agency, after Kirk Cousins left in free agency, Sam Darnold, he told, listen, we may draft a rookie. They have plans to draft a rookie, but here's what's going to happen. You're going to get the opportunity to start for this team and take advantage of the opportunity to take an otherwise ready for playoffs team, despite what happened the previous year, but due to injuries and things of whatnot, take this opportunity and lead us to the playoffs and become a new version of yourself.
Slates clean. Forget about the Jets. Forget about Carolina.
Forget about anything like that. Come on in with what you learned from San Francisco and become the new Baker Mayfield. Look what Baker did in Tampa. And he got himself a nine figure contract out of it. He won a division.
Why don't you do that for us? We're going to give you that opportunity. Smash cut to week 16 and he's 12 and 2. And he has a chance to win a division. And he started 5-0 and then lost two in a row. And everybody, we were having our fun when Sam Darnold started 5-0 talking about that time when he was 3-0 for the Carolina Panthers and the MVP of the NFL going into October that year. And then they lost two games in five days to the Lions at home, to the Rams here in SoFi.
And it's just like, well, isn't that nice? Sam had a nice start and the Vikings will just regress to the mean and they can win the NFC North guys. And San Darnold has been spectacular all season long. They bounce back from that mini two game losing streak in a five day span to win seven in a row. To be 12 and 2 or better for the first time since that 1998 season with Dennis Green and Billick as the offensive coordinator. They've scored 125 points in the last four games, which is one of the best we've seen from the Vikings in a long time.
Last time they did something like that was 2019. It's their only fourth time they've scored 125 points or better in a four game span since 2010. And how about this for Sam Darnold? Do you know who's got the longest active streak of 200 passing yard games in the NFL this year?
Sam Darnold. He had 231 last night. It's his career high 12th win. He won his career high 12th start in the previous four seasons combined. He had 10 wins and 27 passing touchdowns total. He's got 12 wins and 29 passing touchdowns this year. The list of most quarterback wins in a first season with new team. Last 40 seasons, Darnold's dozen wins behind only Steve McNair's 13 wins when he joined the Ravens in 2006 and Peyton Manning's 13 wins when he joined the Broncos in 2012. That's what Sam Darnold's doing.
Threw himself in the mix with two co-MVPs that they were in their previous stints with the Colts and the Titans and Manning and McNair. Everybody's eaten. Justin Jefferson's eaten. Jordan Addison's eaten. Aaron Jones is eaten. TJ Hockinson's eaten.
Everyone's eaten. And the Vikings are flat out in the mix to be the bi-week team. Guys, come on, right?
Yeah. They could be the one seed the rest of the way. Minnesota's final three games. They're at Seattle, home for Green Bay and at Detroit. So they've got some serious slugfests with three teams that are in playoff mixes for sure. And then that last game at Detroit could be for the whole shooting match. Philadelphia has a tough game at Washington. Home for Atlanta at Dallas. They could win out for sure. That's going to be the last game of the year, right?
Which is what? Minnesota at Detroit? Detroit for the North? Or maybe the one seed? It's entirely possible.
Certainly for the North. You could, guys, it's entirely possible we could see a 13-win wildcard team in the NFC. We're gonna, right? We might see a 14-win wildcard team in the NFC. Somebody could win 14 games and say, sorry, you got to start on the road. You got to go to Tampa.
You got to go to Los Angeles. Potentially. To take on two teams from last year's playoffs in their house. Thanks for winning 14 games.
Too bad. And that team could be the Detroit Lions. And that's what Sam Darnold has done with his opportunity. Now, this is a conversation to be had once it's all said and done. Cooper's talking to me about it quite a bit, my 13-year-old at home, because, you know, I've raised him, right? And he roots for two college football teams, Michigan and whoever plays against Ohio State.
So he's genuinely concerned about J.J. McCarthy's opportunity to start next year. And he's like, what happens with Sam Darnold? That's a question for down the road.
Let's see how it finishes up. You know what I think is kind of funny? But that's the conversation that's being had right now, at least in my household, because of how well Sam Darnold's doing, which is nuts. Well, Coop obviously listens to the Overreaction Monday podcast, where I said that a couple weeks ago.
You know, it's kind of funny. And they both played last night. Everyone after the draft talked about how dumb it was to draft Michael Penix by the Falcons, which I'm sure we'll get to later.
The same situation is played out in Minnesota. Imagine if the Vikings had a player that they had taken at the top of the first round that was contributing. They have a guy who they took who's not playing. Obviously, he's out for the year, but no one mentions how dumb of a draft pick that was. Well, that's total 20-20 hindsight. But that's looking at the draft is all 20-20 hindsight.
No, I understand that. So when you look at that through this lens, you're like, man, really wish they had a top 10 player who was contributing right now. Well, in terms of that, you could say that for sure about the Atlanta Falcons, who struggled to end their four-game losing streak last night against a Vegas team that has nothing to play for anymore except pride.
And you're wondering if Penix is going to be moved into the starting role even in the final weeks of this season because of how Cousins is playing. You could make that case for Atlanta that we were saying on that night. But for terms of the Minnesota Vikings, nobody thought other than maybe Sam Darnold, his family and people or Jordan Palmer, you know, and anybody in his circle and Kevin O'Connell thinking that he could be not only successful. But put the Vikings in position to win the conference and Kevin O'Connell in position to be coach of the year. That's what's playing out for the Minnesota Vikings and a ton of fans of theirs, man. After they started five and oh, and then lost two and we're like, oh, here comes that five and 12 season. Here comes all those losses after a great start that we've always expected. And instead, here we are entering week 16. Vikings can win the conference for real. It's it's absolutely for real with the play, the play on defense and the way that this offense is being run with O'Connell calling the plays for Darnold and everyone else has eaten.
That. I can't believe I'm saying these words. It's turned Nick Swardson into Nostradamus. Remember, he was here and he said that the Vikings were going to go undefeated and beat the Las Vegas Aces for the championship in the WNBA.
We know that probably won't happen. And as of this point, he's only two to off. Everything else, he was right. Well, technically, the Aces made the WNBA finals, right? No, they didn't.
No, it was the Liberty against the Lynx. But he was off on that. He was off on just two games through the first 14 for the Vikings. Unbelievable.
Unbelievable. And one of the reasons why we're sitting here thinking it is entirely real for the Vikings to win the conference. And obviously, if they do that, they win the NFC North that the Lions have been sitting on top of on their Honolulu Blue throne since week two.
Pretty much. Is not because they have the same record now, that's obvious, and not because they play each other in week. 18 for which it could be for the division and conference. The Eagles obviously have a lot to say about that. The Packers have something to say about that because the Packers play the Vikings in week 17.
And you could make a case that they are playing like the best team in the conference, too. But you're saying that because the Vikings have won seven in a row and they're not down to their third stringers on many spots on defense like the Lions are. They're also knocked down one of their best players on offense. And David Montgomery, like the Lions are. And the Vikings just eviscerated a lesser opponent.
Yes. On Monday night football. And the Lions just got taken to the woodshed by a Bills team that feels inevitable. And this is a measuring stick game, even for a team that had won as many games in a row as the Lions had won.
Right. Even a team that won 11 in a row was a measuring stick game. And the Bills took that measuring stick and hit the Lions over the head with it. And I know Lions fans, I did do what I advocate that TJ Jefferson not do. I read some of the comments on our YouTube video that we put out from our open of the show yesterday while I gave Josh Allen flowers. And they're like, well, look what he did against our third stringers.
Well, guess what? The Bills didn't have two safeties in the back and took a 14 nothing lead. And they were down Rasul Douglas, too. I mean, everybody's down, but the Lions are particularly down.
I get that. And that's the narrative now in Detroit, which is attrition is setting in and the Lions dream season is now heading to the nightmare of injured reserve over and over and over again. And that if you take too many top notch Super Bowl worthy rostered players off this team, they will suddenly now be as beatable as anybody else. Dan Campbell has been working 24 hours, seven days a week on this team, and he has been working the last 24 hours to push back on this narrative. This is what he had to say when announcing David Montgomery was out for the season when he met with the media on Monday. We acknowledge the fact that we've lost players, we've lost really good players, but nobody cares. I mean, you know, nobody cares and nobody's going to give us a pass or put an asterisk next to your record or so. What it means is some guys are going to have an unbelievable opportunity, you know, because of what has happened.
That means now and you're a guy who's on the vet squad or you're a young player or you're somebody that's been dying to get an opportunity. You're about to get it. And and so that's that's a pretty cool thing. That's a pretty inspiring thing.
You know, what are you going to do with it? And and it's up to us to give them a plan to where they can succeed. And I've said it before, we play with three units here and we'll do what we have to do to win a game. And that's all that matters. That's all that matters from here on out is that you just need to have one more point than the opponent.
Period. No one's going to be playing the violins for us. We've heard this from coaches before. Dan Campbell's got to play that card. He played the card of one point more than anybody else on his local radio hit today.
In Detroit, where he worked a little Honolulu Blue. This is Dan Campbell at his finest. Pound on the table for the Lions to take advantage of this opportunity with the narrative now being everywhere that they're. They can't. You know, what happens is, you know, you win 11 in a row, you know, and you lose and then the sky falls. And I hate to say it, but we're not going to be able to win 11 in a row again for the rest of this season.
We're just not going to be able to do it. And, you know, what happens is you get used to eating fillet. And I'm talking to all of us. And everything's good. Life's good, you know. But you forgot what it was like when you had nothing and you ate your molded bread, you know, and it was just fine. And it gave you everything you needed.
And sometimes you got to get punched in the mouth and remember what it used to be like to really appreciate where you are. And we'll do that. And so we got bad taste in our mouth. We got kicked around the other day. We lost a few guys.
And you know what? It's exactly what we needed. This is exactly what we needed. So we're going to bounce back. We're going to respond. We got guys that are about to have an unbelievable opportunity here. And we will play the game any way needed to win. We still got a good offense. We got plenty of defensive players.
I can go rattle them off right now. We're going to put the best 11 on the field. We're going to freaking cut it loose. We're going to play with our special teams.
And I don't give a crap if we got to win by one point for the rest of the year. That's what we're going to do. And I'm going to be happy about it.
We come out of the game with 50 yards of total offense and we win by one, you're going to see smiles on my face. I promise you. All right. If it's the other way defensively, we give up 700 yards and we win by one point, you're going to see a f***ing smile from my ear to ear. All right. I can promise you. So we're going to find a way and we're going to get it done.
Ninety seven won the ticket. Costa and Jansen. Jansen being John Jansen and Michigan Wolverine. Everybody seek out the video of it. We only we covered it here on the show. Every time the F bomb got dropped, you could see John was looking at somebody behind the glass, basically like, you know, like hit the button or the dump.
Or maybe he was hitting the button. You could see. Take a look at it. You're the expert, Mike. But it's great.
Hit the dump button. Hey, man, this is exactly this is exactly what the Lions need. And the question is, is the cult of personality going to be enough?
Is it going to be enough? They need to hear this from the coach and and and I think they got obviously they got the right guy to to basically say what needs to be said. And it's just like next man up mentality. And yeah, the next man up might be the third string or whatever. But it's up to him and Aaron Glenn and and. To certainly on defense, to come up with a plan where that third stringer.
Can have his best abilities brought to bear and not exposed in the other direction. And for all my Lions friends out there, I sure would love for the narrative to be, you know, that loss is exactly the punch in the mouth that the Lions needed to wake up and the coaching staff through cult of personality and their smarts in the in the film room. And certainly in the playbook is exactly what put the Lions right where we thought they were going to be, which is New Orleans for the Super Bowl. I sure would love that to happen. And I'd love for them to basically turn all AJ Brown and just basically say this is the time for us to tell the media to shut up. You know, but Detroit is at Chicago, which is a beatable team, as we know, at San Francisco, which isn't the same. And then there's that game against Minnesota, which is now, I think, going to be for the division.
And they're going to have to absolutely taste that blood in their mouth. And Dan Campbell's the right guy to do it. He's sounding all the right notes right now. Unbelievable the Lions seasons come to this. Football gods are really kicking them in the nards.
We'll take a break right now when we come back. Brian Dawkins on what was going down in Philadelphia. Does he like all that drama? The Eagles need all that drama. Does it matter?
Brian Dawkins coming up. O'Reilly Auto Parts can test your battery for free in or out of your car. If it needs to be replaced, they'll find you just the right battery for your vehicle.
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Learn more at American Express dot com slash Amex Business. Let's talk game time, people and the holiday season. Game time is all about togetherness. And isn't the holiday season all about that, too?
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Game time. Back here on the program. I haven't spoken to Brian Dawkins in a while.
Used to speak to him all the time. Back in the day. On NFL Total Access. Team Cam. Eagles Cam.
Eagles Cam. That was when Donovan McNabb was on Eagles Cam a lot. And I forget who it was. It was. Yeah, it was. We had Strayhan on.
We would have Sap and Strayhan together. And the reason why we did that is because Sap called out Strayhan for getting the sack record when Favre gave him a cookie. And the two of them started arguing and we put them together and they would have guests.
Yes, once a week. McNabb was a guest once. That was great. Bettis was a guest once. Those were fun, man.
Yeah. And I think they made fun of McNabb for having a receding hairline once upon a time. And I didn't get that humor. Someone had to explain it to me. Because that's when I was beginning to lose my hair.
Rich. And the lockout took care of it. It was gone. Eight years later. Lockout.
See ya. You let the lockout make you lose your hair? Oh. If you went through it. Dude. You get it. No, I mean, you said that multiple times, but I've never actually addressed it. I don't know if it really did.
It's a great story. Being the host of NFL Network when you were like, I don't know if there's going to be a season. And hey, I don't know if there's going to be a draft. Hey, free agency. These are the top free agents available.
Although I don't know if there's a new collective bargaining agreement if they're going to be free agents. But here's the list anyway. Although it did get me on Letterman for the first time. Because he was interested in what the host of NFL Network of a draft during a lockout means. And that's what got me on. Worked in your favor. Back on the Rich Eisen Show radio network, sitting at the Rich Eisen Show desk furnished by Grainger with supplies and solutions for every industry. Grainger has the right product for you.
Call clickgranger.com or just stop by. Stopping by to talk about a very important health issue for him and his family as well as maybe for everybody out there as well as a Pro Football Hall of Fame friend. It is great to see you, Brian Dawkins. I'm blessed and it's good to be seen. It is it is our pleasure to see you on the screen here, man.
You're one of my favorites. I remember NFL Network comes on the air, man. We were firing up Eagles cam for you all the time on NFL Total Access. I'm talking with you and you.
Your Eagles teams were always in that mix. It was awesome. Brian, what are your what are your memories of those days? The days of me and you chatting it up. No, your days of playing you and I, I already know how you feel about that because I feel about it the same way about you and I.
But no, it's good. No playing in those Eagles days, man. Like what was that?
What was that like for you? No, it's it was obviously it was it's something that was built up. It was it didn't just exist.
It didn't just start off where it was. It was something that we had to go through some tough times. We had to grow a whole bunch of growing to do as a as a team. And and I would tell you and I tell everybody that, you know, the team that Andy got, especially on defensive side of the ball, the team that Andy and Jim Johnson went on to coach. We bonded through some tough times.
Me, that defense, myself, Troy Vinson, Hugh Douglas and all those guys like Trott. We bonded like we would watch film together and about effort that we're going we weren't going to just let up on as far as accountability for one another. So that was a love and a room and appreciation in a room for one another so that when we then moved on and then Jim got us, he got a gristle group. And so it was that group, obviously, the offense as well.
Wait, Deuce was there. So we we had a mindset of working together, holding on, holding one another accountable that allowed us to do what we did year after year after year. And obviously, you know, Andy Reid and what he brought in his philosophy and what he brought in is for the same thing with Jim Johnson.
But there was a mindset that that was adapted by us as far as how we want to approach off seasons and then seasons that had us in the hunt every every year. Yeah. And in terms of, you know, bonding, building in the city of Philadelphia and then holding each other accountable kind of sounds like a perfect entree to discuss the current Philadelphia Eagles. Right.
With A.J. Brown saying, I'm just holding people accountable when I'm at my locker after a ninth straight win, talking about the passing game being an issue. And, you know, and then the rest of the team throughout the week saying, hey, we're just talking about getting better. And a lot of us in the, you know, observation mode are like, OK, let's see how this one works out. And they go out and punk the Steelers. And I'm just wondering, like, do these Eagles need that sort of drama in order to be successful? Do you think, Brian, from afar?
What do you think? So so so here's the thing. If you look at last game and you can't see with your eyes that there was a struggle to get the ball in the air and get completed passes and get you runs at the catch, that it was a struggle for them to do that, then you're not watching the same game that I'm watching.
Yes, there was some struggles. They won the game. Yeah, absolutely. And here's the great thing about it. In some in some locker rooms, a win is a win and the win rushes and brushes over everything.
So why? Why are we talking about anything that we're winning? Oh, you actually have individuals that care enough about what they do on the field, how they go about doing their business and knowing the grand scheme of how they lost last year in the playoffs to recognize that, yes, we won the game. But it needs to be always. But in every game that you win besides the Super Bowl, there always should be a but if you win, there should be a but. But this because there's always things to fix.
There's always levels that you can increase to. And if you have a mindset that you want to stay comfortable to get comfortable in victories, but you don't want to challenge yourself to hold on and hold yourself to a high standard is also is ultimately about that. What is the standard that you hold yourself to? Do you hold yourself to the standard of, hey, let's just win? Oh, you hold yourself to. Yes, let's win. But what did I do to attribute to it?
What did I do or what could I do better to make sure that if we're faced another opponent and another opponent is better, that my standard then rises to another level of how I need to perform. Right. So to me, that's what you're hearing. You're hearing guys that had that conversation. They said some things in the media. They had their tough conversations, but hopefully behind closed doors. But then you saw a product show up on the field. That means to me that not only were the words heard, but they were listened to. They were talked about and then actions were put in place so that they can come on the field and perform and do better. And they did. Yeah. Ten wins in a row. Right.
And so that is the ultimate, I guess, indicator whether it is working or not. So are you saying you're not concerned at all with the manner in which, you know, even with AJ Brown and and Jalen Hurts, you know, kid and play dancing their way to a victory. There still was a moment with Jalen Carter on the sideline that, you know, Big Dom how to get between the coach and Jalen Carter. You know, and it's just I looked at I was referring to it, Brian, is a family that, you know, loves each other.
But they got to argue it out and and and have friction in order to come together closer. Like that's what these Eagles look like to me. You know, but but you also have to recognize who you have in Jalen Carter. Like you have you have probably perhaps one of the best pullback players in the game of football. When I say pullback players, it's a guy that you have to tell to slow down, not speed up, like, hey, slow down.
Hey, hey, just let's handle this. He has he has he has something to him like like his his willingness to go to go. I don't matter of fact, does he even come off the field?
I didn't look at that. Does he come off the field? And if he doesn't come off the field as a defensive lineman, like that's very rare that a guy doesn't come off the field as a defensive lineman. So and then he goes hard every play. Right. So he has so much to give. And sometimes when you have that, sometimes you go overboard.
Got a 15 yard penalty. Yes, it was not the smartest thing to do. Got it. But, you know, also that he gets ramped up and when he gets ramped up, then that's not quite that's not really the time to come to be like really getting in his face.
Let him calm down a little bit so that you can have a conversation with him. Right. And maybe that's what was going on. I'm just speculating. Sure.
Because I've got teammates like that. Like we have to say, hey, coach, we got it. We got it. We got to let him cool down a little bit. Then the coach can come say what he needs to say and then we move on with it. But that happens. Well, it's just I don't don't don't allow that to be something that you say, oh, there's chaos in the locker room before.
No, that's not chaos. That happens from time to time on the sidelines. You're from Jacksonville, went to Clemson. We'll talk about your college, you know, before I let you go. And when did you know you were you were going to be perfect for Philadelphia? When did you know, OK, this is not, you know, maybe the way I neighborhood I grew up in, not the area, not the situation that I was in college, you know, that this is a different sort of city that you need to be cut out for. When did you know you were you were cut out for it?
Right away. Know why? Because I grew up in a neighborhood that even on Little League, and I'm not saying this is the right way of doing it.
Sure. Like the coaches, they coached us and they didn't always use, like, eloquent words to challenge us. Not everyone got an orange wedge. Is that what you're saying? Not everybody got orange wedge. No participation trophies in Jacksonville.
They would take water off the table running hard enough that there's no water for the practice. Right. So, like you, I've heard language and all of those things and people and those coaches, I knew those cases, coaches cared about us. Right.
They didn't really communicate in a way that I would communicate. But again, I know what that felt like. Right. So when I went to Philadelphia, I'm I'm kind of right at home now.
They didn't say use in Jacksonville. But it was it was it was, you know, still that firm love. I call it love. It's still love.
It's an aggressive love, but it's still love. I love it. Brian Dawkins, Hall of Famer here on the Rich Eisen Show.
Let's get to the It Takes Two Health Initiative and to spread awareness about kidney health. And you're going to be part of the Rose Parade in twenty twenty five in that regard. So what is this about?
Brian Dawkins. Yeah. First of all, I'm so proud and blessed to be a part of it. Beringer and Lily allow me to be a part of it. And for me at first, it hits home first.
Right. So when I heard about these two qualifications that could potentially get you into a space of having chronic kidney disease and that's type two diabetes and high blood pressure. Both my mom and dad have that will have type two diabetes.
My mom, high blood pressure is under control for now. And then my father has always been battling up and down when it comes to that. So when I got that information, there's specific tests. It takes two. That's the initiative. So it takes you and your doctor and it takes two tests, a urine and a blood test to see if you are heading down that path to have chronic kidney disease. And so once I got that information, one thing you know about athletes, myself being one of those individuals is that we're extremely proactive with our health. For the most part, not everybody, but for the majority of us, I would say a very proactive when it comes to health.
And so I'm very pro pro active with my health now. And so I wanted to get that information over to my parents, caregivers, my aunts and uncles to make sure that they get these tests done if they fall into those two parameters. Right. So that we can make sure that they have all the things that they need, that if they do have it, they can start that process, whatever that their doctors decide.
And then if they don't, to make sure that they're still on the on the list to be tested going forward throughout their lives. Right. So, again, I'm blessed to have the opportunity to have a platform that people listen to me, especially when it comes to health and taking care of your body. This is a vessel. This is the only one that we get.
Right. So that if I can then talk from a platform to help people to then go out to then get these tests done so that they can, you know, again, get these tests done so that you know that you're in the proper hands. And then you get the proper diagnosis and then you do whatever it is that you and your doctor, your team decide that you need to do going forward so you can stay here.
So that's that's my main thing about this, helping, helping as many people stay here and stay healthy for as long as possible. Test your kidneys dot com for more information and resources about what you are talking about. Brian Dawkins, make sure everybody, certainly if you feel that you are just like Brian's family might have a history of this. Go check it out again.
Test your kidneys dot com. Clemson's going to win it all. Brian, what do you think? You're going to beat Texas going to run?
What are you thinking here? They're in the playoffs. Right. So as the as the as the saying goes, there is a chance. There is a chance. OK. Speaking of, if I'm not mistaken, how many Clemson Tigers are in the Pro Football Hall of Fame? Hmm. I don't know. You talk about it all sports. No, no. The Pro Football Hall of Fame. How many Clemson Tigers?
But I'm talking about all sports. Oh, OK, sure. No, I'm I'm I'm I am I correct. Are you the only one?
Were you the first from Clemson? And that blew me away when I learned that. Me too.
When I made that, I was like, wow, are you serious? Wow. It's a blessing. I'm humble, absolutely humble by that. I know, man.
It's pretty cool. So, yeah, I mean, you know, taking on Texas and Peyton, his his his nephew might be coming to try and break things up for you, Brian. I mean, this is that's going to be to go into that house to try to win a game.
But that's this. They know they can't they can't have any turnovers. I mean, they're going to have to play. I won't say a perfect game. Nobody plays a perfect game, but they can't hurt themselves going to Texas and thinking they're going to win a game. And then and then they move on to maybe Arizona State and then we'll see what happens if they can come out of the 12 seed right there.
So what do you what is your prediction right now as we're sitting here with three weeks to go in the NFL season for who's going to be playing in the Super Bowl in New Orleans? I haven't thought about it like that. Well, now you have to, Brian, because it's sports talk.
I want to ask you that question. So obviously it's going to be Eagles, right? OK, let's do that.
They're going to be in that time. I would I'm still going to I'm still going to put Kansas City in there. I would say the Ravens and obviously Detroit. So that would be my four.
OK. And then if I had to press you and I'm about to, who makes it? What do you think for who's in? Yeah. Who's in New Orleans for Super Bowl fifty nine. Brian Dawkins. What do you think? I right now you twist my arm.
I've just done. You've got to give me a doggone answer. I would say it would be the Ravens against the Eagles. The Ravens.
Why do you like the Ravens, Brian? Oh, I left Buffalo out. I'm tripping.
Oh, man. Yeah. Let's not forget. Can I do five because Buffalo got to be. Buffalo got to be in there.
There's only two that play, though. All right. All right. That play, you know, this you know, that's personally, you know, that's so come on. What do you think?
Who makes it? You're putting the Eagles in out of the NFC. I got that. And then the AFC, you know, who do you have? What do you I just I just messed my whole train of thought up when I when I thought about Buffalo like that. Just threw a complete wrench into that.
How good is Josh Allen, man? That's my point. That's my that's my point. That's my point. Wow.
Man. OK, so if word does the championships go through? I'm going to say it's Kansas City. I'm going to say it's going to go through Kansas City. Let's just do that, because they are the one seed and they're probably going to be the one seed because they're two up on the bills.
So there's that if it goes through there, then that's going to change everything that I just said. And I believe that they play well in the playoffs. And even though they're struggling at times here during the season, they seem to kick it to another year in the playoffs. So if it still goes through Kansas City, I think it would then be Kansas City and then it would be a repeat of Super Bowl a couple of years ago. Well, OK. And then last one for you, Brian Dawkins, if I had the temerity, the gumption to walk up to you, because I was on that field on that night where your your Eagles lost to the Patriots to have the Patriots go back to back. And if I walked up to you and said to you, the next team to go back to back would be coached by Andy Reid in Kansas City. And Andy Reid would have the chance to have a three peat to be the first ever coach to three peat.
What if what would you have said to me if I walked up to you in that moment and told you that about Andy Reid? It makes sense. It makes sense.
It makes sense. And even then, Andy was not obviously the Andy of today. He's grown in so many ways as far as his play calling is concerned. But his formula has been the same. Like, if you look at his teams, when he's had success, he's had someone of this defensive coordinator that that can call a heck of a game. And now he has Spags doing that. And I think if I'm not mistaken, Spags has won the most Super Bowls as a defensive coordinator in NFL history. So at some point he may even I think he should be in the doggone pro football hall of fame for what he's done. But he's always had those things. Special teams have always been strong.
And then him as a play caller has always been able to kind of balance things off as far as the running pass game. He's done a much better job of that now in the last, what, 15, 20 years than during my time. Brian, you're the best, man. I miss talking to you. Let's do this again. Anytime.
Seriously, whatever you want to do, whatever you want to talk about, whatever is important in your life. You're truly one of my favorites. When I said this at the very beginning, you know, NFL Network comes on the air in 2003. You were there. You're always there and you're always cool to NFL Network and me and Total Access. And I always appreciate it.
You were bawling out then and you were always giving of your time. I appreciate it. Appreciate it, brother. God bless you. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone. Right back at you.
Testyourkidneys.com and always check out Brian Dawkins whenever you can, certainly on social media. See, he's harmless. Nice guy.
Yeah. Now let's take a break. Not back in.
844-204-RICH. What's up with the Falcons, man? Coming around, Chris.
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Yeah, I want green hoodie. And then I went sat in black jacket. I just noticed the black eagle on it. This is subtle. This is subtle.
I didn't want to I didn't want to come here and be, you know, blatant with it. This is a subtle. Yeah, I didn't notice it.
It's sort of like a watermark sort of situation you have right there. You get up close. You're like, whoa, he really is an Eagles fan. He's got a lot. Yes. You got a lot of Eagle stuff. I'm wearing a jersey to the Super Bowl with Jerome Brown patch. That's what you're going to do.
Yes. OK. Random Cunningham jersey. My jersey has Jerome Brown patch. Well, what will it say on the back? Let's say heart.
Let's say you're going to say Cunningham. It's a real jersey. OK. I can't make it say heart. I'm no longer authentic if I make it say heart. It's got to be a real jersey. This is a real moment. I understand. It's a big moment for me.
This is it. It's a big game. What do you think? What do you mean what I think? It's going to be eighty, eighty three to six. I called it. I put my prediction out there a long time ago. OK. I had a dream.
I saw it. And how many to that? So how many touchdowns then for Nick Foles then? Nick Foles is going to throw for 32 touchdowns.
It's going to be a grinding game and Foles is going into this game with so much confidence after the last game. He's got so much confidence. I don't care what you say. You can't beat confidence. You know how much confidence I have? You can't beat my confidence.
I don't care what you tell me. I'm so confident. I'm so confident.
Foles has confidence. Our defense has confidence. We are here. This is what we said we will be in the beginning of the season. And we got here. That's confidence.
They're used to being here. That's cocky. That's this little nonchalant shoulder shrug.
Yeah, we'll do it again. It's not the same type of confidence. It's not the same type of hunger. It's a different level of hunger. And these dogs got to eat. Get it? Because they was calling us underdogs. Yes, I know.
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Get a free quote at tryethos.com. That's T-R-Y-E-T-H-O-S dot com. You'd think the Falcons ending their four-game losing streak on Monday Night Football to send Kirk Cousins to, wait for it, wait for it, wait for it, five and one in his last six Monday Night Football games after starting 0-9 in his career in that. You'd think that would end the conversation of who should be the starting quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons, but then you'd watch the game, and it was unwatchable for the Falcons offense.
I don't know what's going on. I mean, Bijan Robinson had another dominant game, 22 carries, 125 rush yards. The rushing game was working. The passing game, with the exception of that wide open Drake-London walk-in touchdown to give Cousins his first touchdown pass in 17 straight quarters. It gave him a 7-0 lead, and they were holding on for dear life against a Raiders team that was missing Max Crosby. He's done for the year, starting Desmond Ritter, who the Falcons, as we all know, jettisoned for Cousins. I mean, Cousins loses in Minnesota to Sam Darnold's five touchdown passes, and then Cousins almost followed it up with a loss to Desmond Ritter. But they did come out with the win. What didn't happen, though, after Cousins went 11 for 17 for 112 passing yards, the fewest pass attempts in passing yards for him and the Falcons this year.
Didn't tamp down, though. Well, what about Michael Penix Jr.? Conversation that the Falcons knew when they drafted him would occur if there was a struggle.
Didn't think it would still be going strong or strongest after a win in Week 15. But this is what the head coach had to say on that subject matter yesterday. He's got to play better, and obviously you've got to go back, you've got to be able to look at everything, but he wants to play better, he's got to play better, we've got to find a way to get him to play better, and obviously we'll get to work tomorrow, and that's a part of our process.
You go, you look at the tape, you review it with the people that it needs to be reviewed with. We'll get all the coordinators in the room, we'll talk with everybody, and we've got to play better at the quarterback position. So part B to that, if he can't, are you prepared to replace him with Michael Penix? You know, we've got everybody on our roster for a reason. We've got so much to get better at, and those things will always be discussed, that's just the nature of the beast in football. It's just so heavily talked about at the quarterback position because there's only one guy out there. So for us, man, our mentality is to find a way to win the next game. That's just the mentality that we're going to have. Cousins echoed the, I know I've got to play better thing. I mean, the defense balled out.
Three takeaways into safety. They balled out with two what? Two blocked punts and a blocked extra point. So the special teams have balled out, but the ball being dropped, figuratively, by this Falcons offense. I mean, Brock Bowers, who's catching everything under the sun at only three catches for 35 yards, you should beat a team that was coming in on a nine-game losing streak, handily, and they didn't. Well, the run game was good. That's what I'm saying. It's the passing game, not to quote A.J.
Brown. You know, it's the passing game, and that is on the quarterback. Again, I just can't see turning to a rookie in week 16 and say, OK, rook, go for it. That's when you bench Kirk Cousins. OK, rook, go for it.
No, the time to do it was weeks ago. I think the horse is out of the barn. You've got to keep up with Cousins.
But I understand why the question is there, and I knew the questions would come. It's just now you're in a position where you just got to stick it out with the vet, who's, by the way, going back to D.C. in a couple of weeks. You got the awful Giants coming in. You should rebound, but I get it. I totally get it.
And, you know, in this day and age, I'm sure Pennax hasn't gotten any snaps with the ones, like hardly a lick of it. So you're just going to say, even I understand the Giants have been horrid lately. You can't just say your first career start now. We're benching Cousins due to ineffectiveness in week 16. But if there's any spark that you can get from it, if you have seen something in practice that gives you the sense that he could handle this.
Because, again, he's not like some 21-year-old, he's 24. And we also know what we've seen from Bo Nix, what we've seen from Jayden Daniels, two rookies this year, what we've seen from Stroud, what we've seen from Purdy. And I'm mentioning all of them together because you see what you see from young quarterbacks who have gotten a ton of snaps at the college level, how well they've played when you throw them in.
I'm just wondering, in these meetings, do they even twitch in that direction? Because what we've seen over the last month and a half ain't it. And you're going to be circling the drain. Certainly with the Bucs playing the way that they are playing, they are surging, the Falcons are struggling and they should have won last night going away and they barely came out with a dub. Interesting times in Atlanta. Chris Long, we miss him. Not anymore. He's coming up. There's no substitute for hard work and getting over it.
